


La Flora y la Fauna

by siba



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Costa Rica, Fluff, M/M, aye, continue maybe?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 14:19:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8985190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siba/pseuds/siba
Summary: Levi is spending the summer in the rainforests of Costa Rica for an opportunity to further his career. Much to his surprise, he ends up working with the head of the program and spending far too much time with him





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of an Eruri Secret Santa that I had the pleasure of being in! Trash-eruri is my recipient and is honestly an amazing person, I recommend checking out their blog because they're one of my favorites! I'm sorry it was so short, in true Costa Rican fashion I waited until the last minute to write this little Eruri love story in my home country. I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Sinceramente,  
> Adrian

“Hello and welcome to the Costa Rican National Conservation Foundation headquarters, located in San Manuel Antonio National park. I’m Sigourney Weaver and on behalf of all of the staff and volunteers here at the Foundation, I would like to thank you for coming to visit and learn more about the conservation efforts here in Central America. But for now, please give a warm welcome to your tour guide for the day.”

There were many a series of unfortunate circumstances that lead to Levi Ackerman standing in shit-knows where, drenched in oily-ass bug spray, sun block for his pale ass, and standing beside perhaps the most annoying colleague in existence at the current moment. For Hanji, this was the best day of her year, being at a National park, drenched in bug spray, sun screen and sweating like a damn pig. For Levi, it was hell. He didn’t want his summer to turn out like this, being stuck in the middle of a fucking jungle with a crazy woman and a group of equally crazy professors from esteemed Universities all over the world who decided that taking a fucking field trip would be fantastic during the one time during the year that they didn’t have to work. It was much more esteemed than a field trip, he would give it that. It was actually a rigorous program that included professors who were experts in their field of natural science from across the world. The application process had been rigorous and at that moment, completely and entirely not worth standing in the middle of the fucking jungle in one-hundred degree weather. Heat wasn’t his element. Really Levi would rather freeze than have to stand in the heat he was being subjected to, and would be subjected to for two long months as he studied the flora and fauna of the Costa Rican national park. His job was to trek through the dense forest with all of the giant ass trees and take non harmful samples of whatever he could get as well as try to genotype the various species that could be new to the database. In theory, this could very easily be the highlight of his career as a biologist and a botanist, but at the time he was more concerned with Hanji’s sweaty arm touching him. They were still standing at the entrance to the national park, their bus that transported them at the break of dawn was sitting off to the side with the driver inside enjoying the air conditioning it offered. Asshole. 

He was just thinking about how he could threaten the bastard in their bus, with his minimal and terribly pronounced spanish, as their ‘tour guide’ for the day approached. “Hola! Bienvenidos al Parque Nacional de San Manuel Antonio!” At least the Spaniard seemed to know what the fuck before them was saying, Levi was still busy glaring at the bastard sitting in the bus and hogging the AC to himself. “Hello, Welcome San Manuel Antonio National Park. I’m Doctor Erwin Smith, professor of environmental biology and conservation at the University of Chicago and the leader of this program.” That had caught enough of Levi’s attention for him to turn back around, looking toward the tour guide whose smile was shining as bright as the sun itself. The fucker was tall with golden hair that reminded Levi of some of his yellow orchids back in his greenhouse. He didn’t expect those bright blue eyes to be as chipper as the smile making this man’s lips curve up at the perfect angles so to make Levi’s knees weak. That could have easily been the heat and he would blame it on the heat until the day he died. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet all of you. Out of all of the applications we received, you were the most qualified. So thank you for giving your time to us this summer and I hope you find this experience enjoyable.” If it were up to Levi, he would have had this little lecture inside of the nearby office that looked as if it had air conditioning, despite the fact that the building in its entirety was as small as a closet. At least he and the blondie could fit in the small ass office and get to know one another better in a more intimate setting with some damn air flow. “If you’ll follow me, we can begin by going through the shortest hiking trail in the park as part of a basic tour. Later on, you all will branch off into your subject specific groups with other experts here in the park to get a better feeling of how this place is related to your profession and classes.” There were only ten of them there, Levi just prayed that these groups would be one on one in some nice freezer somewhere. 

For the most part, the rest of the blonde’s speech was advising them to get water, eat a snack and use the restroom before they went because the hike was going to be an hour to an hour and a half long. He had his hiking bag already on, filled with enough water and granola for both him and Hanji, since he knew that her erratic ass barely packed clothes and underwear in her suitcase before they left. As he expected, Hanji was talking to everyone and anyone she could. It started with the tall blonde German guy, then the pretty Italian woman and her counterpart. Hanji wasted no time in getting to know everyone and trying to hear their life story in five minutes, before she got bored and ended up moving on to the next person. By the time the blonde was beginning to lead them into the thick forest, along a rock and dirt path that seemed to have existed for all time, Hanji was bouncing with excitement and beside Levi once again. “Maria is so cool! Levi she works in Rome! Why can’t we work in Rome?” She mumbles, tagging along behind the tour guide and beside Levi, who merely rolled his eyes and snorted. “Because we’re both trying to get tenure at Northwestern. Besides, if you moved to Rome I’m staying in Chicago. It’s hot as shit in Rome.” They were stepping under hundreds of trees, those that reached towards the sky and provided a nice cover for their pathway through the sea of plants, as far as the eye could see there was nothing but brush and tall, skinny trees that seemed to defy the laws of physics. Despite the five mosquitoes he’d swatted away already and the manner in how he was sweating like a pig, Levi couldn’t help but think that this wouldn’t be such a bad time surrounded by plants. 

“You are both from Chicago as well?” The tour guide- the Smith guy, turns around to look at them as he walks. He even offers Levi a warm smile, one that made his body temperature increase as well. How the fuck did this guy look this good in the scalding heat? It didn’t even appear as if he had any mosquitos around him, any bug really. What an asshole, looking nice and asking questions while Levi himself was struggling to take one step without tripping and landing on his fucking face. “Yes! We work together in the biology department of Northwestern. I’m Hanji Zoe, resident anatomy professor at Northwestern.” Thankfully Hanji didn’t say something dumb, making it so that Levi didn’t have to murder her and make it look like an accident in the dense forests. “-Oh! This is Levi, he works with plants and green stuff.” He figured that his best bet would be pushing her down the hill they were currently walking up and claiming that she tripped over those fucking bigass tree roots below their feet. No one would suspect anything and he could keep some shred of dignity in front of the ridiculously attractive Smith-guy. 

Luckily, something about the shit spewing from Hanji’s mouth was funny because the fucker laughed, shooting Levi a toothy smile that he swore he could see his own damn reflection in. “Botany huh? You know that’s one of my specialties because of my classes. Although I’m entirely sure that you know much more than I do about all of these-” He motions towards a patch of bright flowers as they pass by, those that Levi wouldn’t have noticed otherwise because he had been staring at how the light reflected off of this guy’s hair. He barely had time to look at said mentioned flowers before he was staring at that charming smile once again, at some point during their hike, he had slipped back between Levi and Hanji. Not that he minded so much, it kept the sweaty mess of a woman away from him for the time being. “They’re in the class Heliconia, they’re more common here in this kind of forest than anywhere else in the world.” That made the man stop speaking for a moment in what looked to be like a loss of words, Erwin could barely remember the differences between trees let alone every class of plant that he would need to know in order to identify that simple group of flowers. “Would you mind working with me this summer? I could really use your expertise around here.” Little did Levi know, that was the beginning of a month long intensive work days. At first, Levi had no fucking clue as to what it was Erwin was really doing there in the forests besides studying plants and watching ants walk across some paths. After those first few weeks, a fainting spell once during a particularly hot day, and a lot of time spent in Erwin’s airconditioned closet, that he called his office on the property, Levi could tell anyone what Erwin had been working on with ease. It was simple really, blondie was studying the biological diversity of the forest and determining population densities and how they differed from predicted scenarios. Most often he explained it as ‘He studies what’s in the forest and how much of them there are to see how well the shit heads have been protecting the forest.’ 

His days were spent with Erwin, Monday to Saturday and many times Sunday would be spent with the blondie as well because they all lived in the same apartment complex just outside of San Manuel Antonio. It was like every other Sunday back home for Levi, doing laundry and folding it systematically. The only difference now was that he had the company of an attractive blonde to laugh every time that he said something minorly offensive that could be construed as funny. Erwin always thought it was funny to listen to Levi talk about the flowers he hated. Like orchids, which he called the ‘dumbasses of the flower world’ because of their tendency to give up after the simplest of hardships. They would sit on beach chairs beside the pool, watching whomever decided to take a dip that day, and would talk about whatever came up. It was just another lazy sunday, folding laundry by the poolside as Hanji splashed around with Maria, the italian woman she had taken quite the shining two over the past month and a half. 

“..and then the fuck decided that he was going to show up to the final, after never attending class once.” Levi snorted, shaking his head as he folds his white button down shirt that he had worn out when going out to dinner with Erwin, Hanji and Maria the other night. “I swear I’ve never given such a low grade since. If it could be a negative grade I would have.” As he expected, Erwin laughed and shot Levi that stupid smile that always made him feel like he was going to pass out. By now he had just taken to punching Erwin on the arm in some vain attempt to make him stop smiling, but every time it only made it worse. 

“I had a student like that once. Although she had been nice enough to bring me a bouquet of flowers and a free gift card to Mcdonalds. She still failed, but I appreciated the effort.” Again, the raven haired man snorted, watching how Erwin folded a pair of jeans from the corner of his eyes. Even after a month and a half, he was still surprised that the man could look flawless while doing such menial tasks such as walking or folding fucking laundry. 

“..Speaking of flowers, I was thinking-..or rather hoping that you’d be interested in going to see the new exhibit on flowers that opening up at the art museum. A date that isn’t a group date, that is.” That in itself, very nearly made Levi drop the socks he had been folding neatly into a pristine pile in his laundry basket. Could blondie really be doing this?

“When the fuck did we go on a group date?” Little did either man know, or even notice, that Hanji and Maria had left the pool and were hiding behind a nearby group of trees, trying to control their laughter as best as they could. 

“Yesterday? We went out with Hanji and Maria-”

“That wasn’t a fucking date.” There was some cackling coming from a nearby group of trees, but Levi thought nothing of it as he looks towards Erwin, who was just as shocked as he. 

“I flirted with you all night. Hanji even called me out on it.” 

Levi shrugged, looking back towards where he was folding his socks and placing them in the laundry basket as if he hadn’t just learned he went on a date the night before. “She’s fucking nuts, I just thought she was being a shithead.” There was a brief pause, a lull in their conversation for Erwin really hadn’t expected to be bickering about whether or not they went on a date the night before. 

“...Call it a first date and let me sit in your office for the next two weeks, then you’ve got yourself a date blondie.”


End file.
